Generator is temporarily out, on batteries

[897tgigvib]

Howdy all, for an unknown time until I figure out what's wrong with my generator I'm on battery power only. No generator, no charging of battery, so must ration electricity use until I get this figured out. Will try to be on for a short while once or twice a day.

Off grid here. Completely, and that requires resourcefulness.

 

[lesa]

I didn't know you were off grid... Is this a choice you have made- or is there no power near you? You run your whole house off generators? I would be very interested to hear the details of this. A farm in the country around here (my dream) often is not available with power.

 

[vfem]

Oh no... it has its benefits, it has its draw backs. It's draw back time! I hope you get it all worked out.

 

[897tgigvib]

Lesa, there are no electric power lines anywhere near here, but it is my choice, my dream come true, to live here. Yea, when something goes down it gets difficult, but not impossible. I have the batteries I'm on right now, and one of my bosses is taking the generator to town tomorrow, and I believe I'll have a temporary gas guzzling generator to borrow tomorrow. I do have a good sized propane tank for stove oven and fridge, and heater, but I also have a wood stove for heat, use only one of those at a time. Right now I do not even have my room light on, but I have a couple LED lights that use batteries for these occasions. One looks like a camping lantern.

Today we had a pretty awesome crew, and we put in another 5,000 gallon water tank, so now we have 4 of them. We do not triple filter the spring water, but it is chlorinated to code for most towns. I only drink it if I boil it first, and right now without power my coffee is instant.

 

[so lucky]

It sounds like your life is a permanent camping trip, Marshall. I have often wondered if I could live without electricity and other modern conveniences. I don't mean "stay alive", but to live comfortably. I kinda envy the pared down life of the pioneers, but in reality, I know they had it rough. Cold weather, limited food, less social contact, no modern medicine. And worst of all, no TEG!

 

[897tgigvib]

My life is somewhere between those. It is the modern days, with generator powered electricity and LED, and propane, laptop, satellite and things, but yes, far from civilisation. Some of the folks up here are camo wearing survivalist types, farther up, or even not so far up, some are hardly ever seen, and there are hills and miles between places, oh a few clusters.

Yea, my life could be compared to non stop camping, but our campers here, most of them camp surely not the way we ever camped as kids. The campers here are ordinary folks from nearby towns, mostly small business owners. It's a dream come true for me to live here, but a lot of folks it would not be for. What some call solitude or loneliness, I don't know what to call it, but I enjoy it.

Well, best shut down now. Hopefully I'll have that big gas guzzling generator in a few hours.

 

[Collector]

What does your regular generator use for fuel ? Or is it just more efficient. I am interested in the off grid lifestyle, seems like it would be lots of work but very rewarding. I would like to hear more of your off grid adventures.

 

[digitS']

Don't just go for wood heat and kerosene lamps up here, Collector.

All that smoke just seems ruinous to the eyes!

If the winter alternative is darkness from 4pm until 7:30am, I'd almost be willing to move south! Truth be known . . . I don't know why I don't have that in my plans, anyway .

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Southwest: cost of living. Southeast: hurricanes.

 

[897tgigvib]

Off grid adventures. Well, a person has to change some regular life expectations and enjoy the change. (My good generator uses a lot less gas is all. It's one of those hondas that kind of looks like a little plastic suitcase. Actually, I wish they made an even smaller one but they don't. All I really need is 500 watts, that's over twice the wattage i ever use at a time, but for peaks and starts needs doubling.) For one expectation, I try to make my clothes last longer before washing them. Pants can be easily worn a week or 2, socks 1 to 3 days, longer if nobody is around. I'm not married and my cats don't nag me about it. I can cut my own hair, twice a year. I make it to town usually twice a month, and need to make sure I have an extra month of vitals. So there is no huge electric guzzling dryer or water and electric guzzling washing machine. TV? I hear tell they are all digital these days. Computer, this little laptop is real small electric user, The modem uses some too.

My off grid attitude is, im not letting myself ever become one of those gnarly or crazy survivalists toting guns. My attitude is, geesh I hope nothing breaks today, lol!

Naw, it's where you are in your mindset, and where you actually are. I'm at a beautiful lake. Calypso Orchids grow here, folks come here to have fun, some still have their big city problems with them, most don't.

Yesterday we put in another 5,000 gallon water tank. That's the big news, things like that.